Aristotelian Naturalism and the History of Ethics

22 Pages·2014·0.23 MB·English

Aristotelian Naturalism and the
History of Ethics
DA viD O. BriNk*
terence irwin’s monumental three-volume The Development of Ethics is a
masterful reconstruction and assessment of figures, traditions, and ideas in the
history of ethics in the Western tradition from Socrates through John rawls.
1, 2 The three volumes weigh in at over 11 pounds and span 96 substantial
chapters and over 2,700 densely formatted pages (large pages, small margins,
and small font). The Development of Ethics covers not only familiar figures, such as
Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Hutcheson, Butler, Hume,
Smith, reid, kant, Hegel, Mill, Green, and Sidgwick, but also a rich variety of
ancient sources (including the Cynics, Cyrenaics, Skeptics, and Church Fathers,
including Augustine), medieval, renaissance, and reformation sources (including
Scotus, Ockham, and Machiavelli), sources for natural law (including Hooker,
vasquez, Suárez, Grotius, Pufendorf, and Barbeyrac), continental rationalists
(including Spinoza and Leibniz), British moralists (including Cumberland,
Cudworth, Shaftesbury, Clarke, Balguy, and Price), post-kantians (including Marx,
Schopenhauer, kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger) and twentieth-century
English-language sources (including Moore, ross, Stevenson, Ayer, Lewis, and
Hare). This is just a sampling of the more familiar historical sources that irwin
1 This is a review essay of irwin, DE. in the 2011–13 academic years at the University of California,
San Diego, Sam rickless, Don rutherford, and i taught a four-quarter sequence of graduate seminars
on the history of ethics. i taught the first and last legs of the sequence, Don taught the second leg, and
Sam taught the third leg. Though the seminars were focused on the primary texts, the sequence was
inspired by irwin’s three-volume work. i would like to thank students in those seminars and Don and
Sam for helping me think about the history of ethics. Special thanks go to Don and Sam for comments
on an earlier draft of this essay. i would also like to thank Terry irwin himself for all that i have learned
from him about the history of ethics in various ways over more than three decades.
2 in a review that must be as wide-ranging in the history of ethics as this, it is not feasible to provide
textual references for every historical attribution or interpretive claim. Consequently, my references
will be selective, confined primarily to a few pinpoint references and locating the sources of distinctive
claims that play an important role in my substantive discussion below.
*David O. Brink is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California,
San Diego.
Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 52, no. 4 (2014) 813–834
[813]
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discusses. He also discusses a wealth of less familiar philosophical and theological
figures. For the most part, the chapters are organized chronologically, rather than
thematically. Most chapters are devoted to individual figures, and several figures
get multiple chapters (Aristotle gets four, Aquinas nine, Scotus two, Suárez two,
Hobbes three, Hutcheson two, Balguy two, Butler four, Hume five, reid two, kant
seven, Hegel two, Mill two, Sidgwick three, and rawls two). A few chapters discuss
traditions and themes.
The combination of scope and depth in The Development of Ethics is, as far as i
know, without precedent. Existing comprehensive histories of ethics, such as Henry
Sidgwick’s Outline of the History of Ethics and Alasdair Macintyre’s A Short History
of Ethics, as their titles suggest, are, however valuable, both less comprehensive
and less thorough. Even important recent studies that deal with the history of
modern ethics in significant detail, such as John rawls’s Lectures on the History of
Moral Philosophy, Stephen Darwall’s The British Moralists and the Internal ‘Ought’:
1640–1740, and Jerome Schneewind’s The Invention of Autonomy, concern only
modern philosophy and, even there, have less comprehensive ambitions. The broad
scope of irwin’s inquiry pays various dividends, not the least of which is that he is
able to show that some ideas and themes often taken to be distinctive of modern
ethics have their origins and antecedents in antiquity. Fortunately, irwin has the
skills necessary to make good on the ambitions of his study. indeed, it is hard to
think of anyone else as well qualified historically, philologically, and philosophically
to undertake such an ambitious interpretive and philosophical task and carry it
out with such authority. Any reader (or reviewer) of irwin’s three volumes should
find the process humbling.
Though irwin has a keen sense of the context of the figures and ideas he
discusses, he is focused on and relentless about understanding and assessing the
philosophical content and implications of the texts. Though he provides self-
contained reconstructions and assessments of various figures and traditions that
make good sense of those figures and traditions on their own terms, two general
principles emerge from and guide his discussion.
The first principle is a methodological commitment to Socratic dialectic, as refined
and practiced by Aristotle (DE §2). As a rough first approximation (but see §1
below), this makes irwin’s approach to the history of ethics essentially comparative.
in understanding and assessing the philosophical claims of a particular figure
or tradition, he finds it fruitful to compare the philosophical commitments and
resources of that figure or tradition with the commitments and resources of other
figures and traditions. This is valuable, irwin maintains, whether those different
figures and traditions were in actual and conscious conversation or not.
The second principle is a substantive set of commitments that are perhaps
clearest in Aristotle and Aquinas but that irwin thinks influence, in various ways,
much of the history of ethics. This principle irwin calls Aristotelian naturalism (DE
§3). As a rough first approximation (but see §2 below), Aristotelian naturalism
takes the central ethical concept to be a teleological conception of a final good,
which should be identified with the agent’s happiness or eudaimonia. Conceptions
of eudaimonia should be constrained by human nature. According to Aristotelian
naturalism, this implies that the principal ingredient of the human good must
aristotelian naturalism and the history of ethics 815
be the realization of our rational nature. The virtues, including the moral virtues,
must be understood as essential expressions of this rational nature. if we think
of Aristotelian naturalism as receiving its fullest expression in Aquinas, then we
can understand a good bit of how irwin approaches the history of ethics. Though
few figures accept every element of Aristotelian naturalism, many figures accept
one or more elements. Those who accept several elements and who, therefore,
figure as central characters in the Aristotelian naturalism narrative are Aristotle,
the Stoics, Aquinas, Suárez, Butler, kant, and Green (DE esp. §§3–4, 712, 969–73,
1241–42). Even those who cannot plausibly be viewed as Aristotelian naturalists
can still be usefully understood, irwin argues, as contesting one or more elements
of Aristotelian naturalism.
irwin highlights the importance of these two guiding principles when he
describes an “ampler” title (or possible subtitle) that he might have given the
book in the spirit of some seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophical
titles (DE i 1).
The Development of Ethics
being a selective historical and critical study of
moral philosophy in the Socratic tradition
with special attention to
Aristotelian naturalism
its formation, elaboration, criticism, and defence
Not everyone will agree with irwin’s two organizing principles. Some may think
that there are significant discontinuities in the history of ethics that limit the
value of Socratic method practiced across different time periods and traditions or
that its focus on common issues makes it less likely to reveal novel or distinctive
ideas in different figures and traditions. Others may think that the narrative of
Aristotelian naturalism is Procrustean and ignores important issues and debates
in the history of ethics. For the most part, the application of irwin’s two guiding
principles appears surprisingly elastic, ecumenical, and fecund. No doubt, different
organizing principles would highlight somewhat different issues and debates. But
irwin’s two principles exclude fairly little of systematic importance. The debates
he explores are fruitful and important. And, in any case, there is a great deal of
interpretive and systematic work that irwin does that does not presuppose either
Socratic method or Aristotelian naturalism.
The length, detail, and analytical depth of The Development of Ethics ensure that
no one can read through an entire volume, much less all three volumes, quickly.
its comparative and cumulative narrative means that the treatment of individual
figures is not completely self-contained, which will place some limits on its use as a
reference work. But those working in the history of philosophy and especially in the
history of ethics have reason to be grateful that irwin undertook such an ambitious
project. it represents a unique and lasting contribution to our understanding of
the history of ethics. it will repay careful study and restudy.
Space limitations and limitations in my expertise force me to be selective about
which issues to discuss in greater detail. Moreover, it seems appropriate to focus
on issues raised by irwin’s two guiding principles. in what follows i will examine
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irwin’s Socratic and Aristotelian principles more fully and explore some issues
that arise for combining different elements of Aristotelian naturalism that irwin
does not, i think, fully address and resolve.
1. socratic method
Socratic method is introduced in Plato’s early dialogues where Socrates employs
his dialectical method of question and answer (elenchus) to examine the nature
of the virtues. Socrates’s interlocutors are sometimes ordinary and sometimes
prominent Athenians, many of whom claim to have ethical knowledge. in this
way, the Socratic dialogues investigate both common and prominent views about
the virtues. Famously, Socrates exposes puzzles for and problems in these ethical
views. Despite the negative conclusions of the Socratic dialogues, many readers
conclude that Socrates introduces and defends various positive doctrines in these
dialogues as the best resolution of these conflicting appearances. Certainly, Plato
defends many of his own positive doctrines as the most defensible response to
ideas and puzzles introduced in the Socratic dialogues.
Aristotle also practices Socratic method. He begins most of his philosophical
works with a statement of the appearances (phainomena) on that subject, which
include the beliefs (endoxa) of the many and the wise. Taken collectively, these
beliefs produce puzzles (aporiai) that reflect tensions or at least apparent tensions
in the beliefs of the many and the wise. A central task that Aristotle sets himself
is to examine the appearances and the puzzles set by his predecessors, and an
important test of adequacy for his own theories and doctrines is that they should
explain the source of philosophical disagreement and resolve the disagreements
in a way that preserves as many of the appearances as possible or at least those
that, on reflection, seem the most important.
As in the other cases, we must set out the appearances, and first of all go through
the puzzles. in this way we must prove the common beliefs about these ways of being
affected—ideally, all the common beliefs, but if not all, most of them, and the most
important. For if the objections are solved, and the common beliefs are left, it will
be an adequate proof. (NE 1145b3–7)
irwin follows this Aristotelian use of Socratic dialectic, situating figures in relation
to their predecessors (and sometimes successors), examining how their positions
respond to the strengths and weaknesses in earlier views and assessing the
philosophical progress the figure makes in resolving puzzles in previous positions.
These comparisons of Y with W and X and sometimes Z are always well reasoned and
worth taking seriously. Sometimes, they become quite complex, as in this example.
if Smith is right to agree with Hutcheson against the rationalists, Balguy is wrong to
suppose that Cudworth’s argument against Hobbes’s legal positivism also undermines
Hutcheson’s sentimentalism. (DE ii.679)
irwin invariably sets the stage for these complex comparisons, and they are among
his most thought-provoking claims, but they will challenge readers, especially those
who have not read the chapters on the various figures being compared in close
proximity to each other.
aristotelian naturalism and the history of ethics 817
irwin’s methodology is Socratic in another way as well. it is not just that he
compares Y’s views with his predecessors W and X and argues for judgments about
philosophical continuity, discontinuity, and progress. He also addresses and engages
the figures and traditions he discusses. in reconstructing and assessing Y’s view,
irwin often voices concerns about Y from X’s perspective, considers Y’s resources
for response, and so on through several epicycles. irwin often goes through a
similar dialectical process in assessing tensions in Y’s view. various strategies for
reconciliation are tried; some are judged successful, others not. Sometimes, the
result will be an unanswered objection to or unresolved tension in Y’s views. if
this is a central feature of Y’s view, this may prove a reason to be dissatisfied with Y.
This is one way to read irwin’s verdict on naturalist criticisms of voluntarism and
naturalist and realist criticisms of sentimentalism. But often the offending feature of
Y’s view, even if important, may not be literally essential. For this reason, sometimes
the result of irwin’s dialectical engagement with Y is a judgment about what is
most important and worth preserving in Y. This interpretation of the defensible
Y might be quite different from some received interpretations of Y. This is one
way of reading irwin’s sympathetic but not uncritical discussion of kant in which
he disagrees with kant’s appeal to transcendental freedom and his criticisms of
eudaimonism and defends a realist understanding of kant’s grounding of moral
requirements in an appeal to rational nature.
Of course, to some extent any historian of philosophy with some analytical
ambitions will assess the contributions of the figure under discussion and offer
judgments about which elements of the position are most important and which
elements might need rethinking. in this sense, the author is always an interlocutor
in the history she examines. But some interlocutors aim to be intelligent and fair
moderators in discussions led by others. Though irwin’s voice does not eclipse the
voices of his historical figures, he plays the role of a distinctive, prominent, and
vigorous interlocutor. Like Socrates, he is not simply a moderator but a central
participant in the inquiry (DE i.3).
irwin acknowledges that approaching the history of ethics as a collective Socratic
inquiry influences his treatment of various figures and traditions. Adherence to this
methodological principle does not seem to exclude many from consideration, if
only because the scope of irwin’s treatment is so comprehensive. But it may affect
how different figures and traditions are discussed, stressing the contributions of
those figures whose work is most thoroughly dialectical or focusing on those themes
in a particular figure that make him more readily comparable with other figures
(DE i.3). Perhaps some figures would receive less attention (e.g. Aquinas) and
other figures more attention (the utilitarians and Nietzsche) in a less dialectical
approach, and perhaps a less dialectical approach would spend less time discussing
the attitudes of later writers to Greek ethics. But it is hard to dispute the importance
of the themes and debates that emerge as common on this dialectical approach.
A selective perspective brings potential benefits as well as costs.
However, one concern about applying Socratic method across large stretches
of time is that it may seem to presuppose that there is a common conception of
the central ethical problems and viable answers. Socratic method may seem to
commit us to finding philosophical continuity in the history of ethics. it may be
818 journal of the history of philosophy 52:4 october 2014
no surprise that irwin finds a substantive principle such as Aristotelian naturalism
to be a touchstone in the history of ethics if he starts by assuming continuity in
the history of ethics. But this may be a problematic assumption precisely because
many commentators have found significant intellectual discontinuity in the history
of ethics, especially between ancient and modern ethics. For instance, Henry
Sidgwick claimed that whereas the central ethical concepts of antiquity were
attractive, the central ethical concepts of the modern period were imperatival
and juridical (Methods, 105–6). This contrast is sometimes also understood as
a contrast between axiological concepts, such as the good, and deontological
concepts, such as the right. Both Sidgwick and Bernard Williams have contrasted
the egocentric character of Greek ethics with the impartiality of modern moral
conceptions.3 Elizabeth Anscombe thought that modern ethics was dominated by
the notion of obligation, which only made sense in the context of a lawgiver and
accompanying theological commitments and, hence, made no sense in a secular
age.4 She recommended the return to what she believed were quite different
ideas about moral character and the virtues that were central in antiquity. This
recommendation presupposes both that an ethics of happiness and virtue and
one of obligation and natural law are fundamentally opposed and that the ethical
concepts of the ancients are still accessible to us moderns. relatedly, both Darwall
and Schneewind have claimed that modern ethics is importantly discontinuous
with ancient ethics, precisely because it makes the idea of an obligation central,
and have insisted that obligation must be understood in broadly voluntaristic
terms, as involving the will.5 On this reading, the modern focus on obligation
culminates in the kantian focus on autonomy. They agree with Anscombe about
the discontinuity between ancient and modern ethics but disagree with her insofar
as they think that the modern focus on obligation is defensible and important.
These contrasts raise large issues that cannot be addressed adequately here.
But several observations are worth making. First, any commitment to continuity in
the diachronic application of Socratic methods is defeasible. We might try to situate
Y’s concerns in relation to her predecessors and assess how well her central claims
address and resolve disagreements and puzzles in the claims of W and X, but after
attempting to do so we may find that there is simply too little common ground to
make direct comparisons and assess progress. Of course, that is not the conclusion
irwin reaches. But it is not precluded by his adoption of a Socratic methodology.
Second, as we will see, Aristotelian naturalism provides an elastic analytical
framework, and positions can be identified in terms of their attitudes, positive
or negative, to various aspects of Aristotelian naturalism. So some of the
discontinuities that other commentators claim to find in the history of ethics can be
3 Sidgwick, Methods, 91–92; and Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.
4 Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy.”
5 Darwall, British Moralists; and Schneewind, The Invention of Autonomy; see also Darwall, “Grotius.”
Both Darwall and Schneewind follow Barbeyrac in thinking that Grotius’s focus on obligation marked
a fundamental transition in modern ethics, though they understand Grotius’s innovation somewhat
differently. irwin reads Grotius differently from either and sees his contributions as more continuous
with ancient and scholastic sources (DE ii.70–99).
aristotelian naturalism and the history of ethics 819
represented within irwin’s framework. For instance, we might agree with Sidgwick
that many moderns reject the teleology or the eudaimonism that was central in
antiquity. While we could not sensibly claim that all of modern ethics repudiated
naturalism, we could agree with Darwall and Schneewind that a distinctive and
important feature of modern ethics involved commitment to a voluntarist focus
on obligation. in short, the kind of continuity irwin claims to find in the history
of ethics is more ecumenical than one might initially think.
Finally, irwin explicitly considers many of these discontinuity narratives (DE
§§6–7, 453–68). He disagrees with them on a variety of issues, including how best
to interpret certain modern figures, such as Suárez, Grotius, Butler, and kant, and
how defensible voluntarism is. But, more generally, he thinks that once we take a
more comprehensive look at the history of ethics, both ancient and modern, not
only will we see the modern period as more complex and not dominated by a single
commitment or theme (Aristotelian naturalism is itself a compound of several
distinct commitments) but also we will see that there were already precedents for
many allegedly modern ideas in ancient and medieval ethics.
2. aristotelian naturalism
irwin believes that Aristotelian naturalism provides a useful lens through which
to view many developments in the history of ethics, both ancient and modern.
Aristotelian naturalism, we noted, has several distinguishable elements.
1. Teleology. Ethics and practical reason are teleological in the sense that they
are properly regulated by a final good.
2. Eudaimonism. The appropriate final good for each agent is her own eudai-
monia or happiness.
3. Naturalism. The correct conception of the final good should reflect our nature.
4. Rationalism. Human nature is a life of reason in which one responds appro-
priately to objective goods and reasons, and ethical requirements are require-
ments of reason.
5. Virtues. The virtues, including the moral virtues, express this rational nature.
6. Common Good. The moral virtues involve a concern for a good that is common
between the agent and others.
irwin’s initial discussion of Aristotelian naturalism makes the first five commitments
explicit (DE §3). But the claim that moral virtue must be concerned with a common
good appears as a reasonable condition of adequacy for any eudaimonist ethical
theory and is an assumption embraced by most figures in both ancient and modern
ethics. Each of the six commitments ends up playing an important role at various
stages in irwin’s narrative.
What does it mean to view the history of ethics through the lens of Aristotelian
naturalism? Of course, irwin recognizes that Aristotelian naturalism is contested
and that many figures and traditions in the history of ethics are skeptical of one
or more of its claims. Nonetheless, he thinks it provides a useful focus.
For one thing, many figures and traditions can be understood in terms of their
attitudes to the constitutive commitments of Aristotelian naturalism. This is easy to
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see in the case of those philosophers who develop and defend most, if not all, of
the constitutive commitments of Aristotelian naturalism. Here, we might consider
briefly those philosophers who figure as central characters in irwin’s narrative.
Though there are interesting intramural disputes between Aristotle and the
Stoics about the exact role of the virtues in happiness, the existence and importance
of moral luck, and the role of divine providence in ethics, the Stoics clearly embrace
some version of each element of Aristotelian naturalism. However, they expand the
ethical community to include all rational beings, and they recognize as a form of
natural law precepts of reason that apply to all rational beings. indeed, it is these
features of Stoic ethics that lead some commentators to see it as bridge between
ancient and modern ethics.
Aquinas gives the fullest expression to Aristotelian and Stoic ideas (DE §§3,
235–36), which explains why irwin gives inordinate attention to him.6 Aquinas
provides needed defense of Aristotle’s assumption about the importance of a
final good and of the importance of the will in our understanding of the virtues.
He insists on the importance of natural law and universal conscience (synderesis),
which grasps first principles of natural law. But he does not think that the
emphasis on natural law is foreign to the Aristotelian account of practical reason.
Practical reason is prudential deliberation about the composition of the agent’s
own happiness. The prudent agent has reason to display intellectual love for
others and to promote a common good. Though Aquinas read Aristotle’s texts
in Latin translation, he follows Cicero’s lead in recognizing that the concept of
the fine or fitting (kalon) in Aristotle’s ethics, which is sometimes translated into
Latin as bonum, is best captured by the Latin honestum, with its connotation of
moral goodness. in this way, Aquinas makes clear that Aristotelian ethics already
contains the idea of moral goodness (DE §§332–34). Significantly, Aquinas thinks
that these Aristotelian doctrines can be reconciled with Christian doctrines. He
famously defends a naturalist, rather than a voluntarist, conception of the relation
between God’s will and moral value. The familiar virtues concern natural law and
ensure a natural good. But this is a pagan virtue. A fully virtuous agent needs the
proper recognition of and devotion to God and the divinely infused virtues, which
guarantee a supernatural and, hence, more complete good.7
Suárez offers a more sustained account of natural law, one that defends the
essentials of Aquinas against voluntarists such as Scotus and Ockham. Suárez agrees
with the naturalists, such as Aquinas and vasquez, that there is intrinsic good
and evil and that natural law is indicative of natural value. But he also thinks that
God’s willing what is intrinsically good provides additional reason, in the form of
obligation, for us to obey the law. Though our obligations may depend upon natural
law and the will of God, there is a moral foundation for natural law that does not
6 irwin devotes nine chapters and over 200 dense pages to Aquinas. Some readers might have
wished for a briefer treatment of Aquinas here, which might have allowed irwin to publish a more
extended treatment of Aquinas as a separate book.
7 irwin insists that the sort of naturalism ingredient in Aristotelian naturalism does not preclude
appeal to an immanent or transcendent god (DE §3). Presumably, this sort of naturalism can include
natural theology.
aristotelian naturalism and the history of ethics 821
depend on God’s will. Though Suárez focuses on natural law and defends claims
that go beyond Aquinas, he can and does accept Aquinas’s Aristotelian naturalism
about the moral foundations of natural law (DE §§452, 712).
irwin’s reading of Butler treats him as importantly continuous with Greek
ethicists (DE §§3, 679, 711–12). in particular, Butler’s appeal to the nature of
complex systems allows him to recognize superior principles whose function it is
to regulate the passions. Here, Butler makes explicit the fundamental distinction
between the strength and the authority of particular passions that was latent in Greek
sources (Sermons, ii 14). The principle of self-love is one such superior principle,
and conscience is another. Though Butler recognizes a nearly perfect coincidence
between the dictates of self-love and conscience, they have distinct sources. The
principle of self-love depends on recognizing that individual passions are different
parts of a synchronically and diachronically unified self. That principle recognizes
reasons grounded in an agent’s temporally extended self. But our reactive attitudes,
especially those involving recognition of merit and desert, reflect the operation of
a superior principle that recognizes each agent as part of a community of agents
with both rights and responsibilities. Just as particular passions are appropriately
regulated by the principle of self-love, so too self-concern is appropriately regulated
by the principle of conscience. in this respect, Butler may depart from the
eudaimonism ingredient in Aristotelian naturalism. But, like the Greeks, he thinks
that the passions and action should be regulated by superior principles that are
part of our constitution and nature. Unlike the naturalism of Hobbes, Hutcheson,
and Hume, Butler’s naturalism is normative, not reductive. responsiveness to
reason is part of our nature, and so a conception of virtue grounded in human
nature constrains and regulates the passions.
As irwin recognizes, many would not regard kant as a natural ally of Aristotelian
naturalism. Though he is a rationalist, he is a sharp critic of eudaimonism and
opposes attempts to found morality on human nature as heteronomous. Moreover,
he embraces a form of non-naturalism insofar as he thinks that morality is possible
only if agents are noumenally free. But irwin thinks that in important respects
kant’s most central commitments are compatible with Aristotelian naturalism and
that a sympathetic defense and articulation of kantian ideas would treat him as part
of this tradition (DE §§4, 6, 238, 897, 907, 932, 934, 969–73, 1241–42). kant is a
rationalist insofar as he agrees on the importance of a supreme regulative principle
of practical reason. His criticisms of Greek eudaimonism rest on a subjective and,
ultimately, hedonist conception of the good that is alien to most Greek thinking
about the good and, hence, vitiates his criticisms. indeed, Platonic, Aristotelian,
and Stoic conceptions of eudaimonia understand it as a life regulated by reason
and expressing virtue. Though kant reasonably resists attempts to ground morality
in reductive appeals to human nature, his own conception grounds morality
in our rational nature as agents. But then kant’s chief objection to naturalism
is to reductive or empirical naturalism, not to the rationalist and normative
conception of naturalism accepted by the Greeks and Butler. if kant’s own appeal
to transcendental freedom proves problematic, it may be best to defend his
central ethical commitments, in particular, his claims about negative and positive
freedom, by appeal to a naturalistically acceptable form of compatibilism in terms
822 journal of the history of philosophy 52:4 october 2014
of the capacity to be guided by superior principles. Aristotelian naturalism, as
irwin understands it, involves a commitment to objective goods and reasons to
which a virtuous agent responds appropriately. irwin defends a realist, rather than
constructivist, interpretation of kant’s claims about the relation between the moral
law and rational agents, in which agents impose the law on themselves but do not
decide on its content (DE ch. 72). These claims explain why irwin thinks a strong
case can be made for seeing kant as part of the tradition of Aristotelian naturalism.
it is less clear that kant does or ought to embrace eudaimonism, even if his
explicit reservations about eudaimonism rest on misconceptions about that
doctrine. This is because kant believes that practical reason is fundamentally
impartial, as reflected in the Formula of Humanity version of the Categorical
imperative (Groundwork, 4:429). We do have reason to be concerned with our
own rational nature, but only as part of a concern for rational agents as such.
Whereas eudaimonists recognize other-regarding virtues and reasons for the agent
to be concerned about the well-being of others, they must ground this kind of
tuistic concern in the agent’s own eudaimonia. By contrast, kant seems to agree
with Butler’s claims about the independence and superiority of conscience. Like
Butler, kant may satisfy enough features of Aristotelian naturalism to fit within the
tradition, but they both appear skeptical of the eudaimonist strand in Aristotelian
naturalism.
Though Green is an unfortunately neglected figure in the history of ethics,
it is clear why he fits the Aristotelian naturalist mold. indeed, he is arguably the
clearest Aristotelian naturalist in the modern period. Green’s major philosophical
work, Prolegomena to Ethics, aims to synthesize the best elements in ancient and
modern ethical traditions, in particular, Aristotelian and kantian claims (cf. DE
§§1241–42).8 He criticizes empiricist and, especially, hedonist conceptions of
desire, the will, and the good. Following Butler and kant, he argues that agents have
capacities for practical reason that allow them to distinguish between the intensity
and authority of desire, to deliberate about their ends, and to regulate their actions
according to superior principles. in doing so, he explicitly criticizes kant’s appeal
to transcendental freedom and defends a compatibilist understanding of the will.
Like the Aristotelians, Green understands acting on superior principles in terms of
acting on a conception of one’s own overall good and interprets the agent’s own
good in terms of self-realization. The demand for self-realization is appropriate
given our nature, not as humans (a biological kind), but as persons (a normative or
forensic kind). Because this demand is grounded in features of moral personality
or agency, Green regards its dictates as categorical, rather than hypothetical,
imperatives. Like others in the eudaimonist tradition, Green thinks that proper
self-realization requires a constitutive concern for others. Like the Stoics, he
thinks that this other-regarding concern should be genuinely cosmopolitan in
character, involving respect for all other rational agents. He agrees with kant about
the importance of the Humanity formula of the Categorical imperative, but he
understands these moral demands as grounded in self-realization.
8 For analysis of Green’s ethics, see Brink, Perfectionism and the Common Good.